Letter: Family planning and the GOP

Columnist Lane Filler is exactly right ["GOP can't run from facts and still survive," Opinion, Nov. 9]. I want to add one more truth that the GOP has repeatedly ignored: Family planning can save the government money.

The GOP wasn't always so anti-birth control. Former President George H. W. Bush was a vocal supporter, and in 1969, it was President Richard Nixon who first made family planning assistance a national priority by signing Title X into law. Title X allows many health care providers to provide contraception and related services to people who can't otherwise afford them.

Forty-one years later, the GOP-led House of Representatives attempted to defund Title X under the guise of cost-cutting. However, every public dollar spent on family planning saves $3 in the same budget year.